Step-By-Step Guide To Getting A Revolut Card For Your Travels, Overseas Money Transfers And Foreign Currency Spends

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With Revolut, you can spend in over 150 foreign currencies at the interbank exchange rate. You can also exchange and store up to 33 currencies in your Revolut mobile wallet.

The value that global multi-currency platforms, such as Revolut, provide is in reducing foreign currency transaction fees, offering more competitive and transparent foreign currency exchange rates, storing and even receiving multiple foreign currencies, introducing innovative personal and business banking tools for saving and budgeting, as well as delivering a trusted and low-cost cross-border digital banking solution.

Today, Revolut has over 30 million customers in more than 30 countries, including Singapore. Revolut also supports more than 500,000 business account users for their foreign currency transaction needs.

How Does The Revolut Card Work?

First, you need to install the Revolut app on your phone. Via the app, you can already manage various functions on your account, as well as apply for a physical Revolut card.

As you are effectively using a mobile wallet to pay for your transactions, online and/or with a physical Revolut card, you need to make a top-up to your account. You can top-up your account conveniently via either a bank transfer, credit or debit cards or Google Pay or Apple Pay.

Among multi-currency cards and wallets in Singapore, Revolut stands alone in offering a free or paid service. Its paid service offers access to value-added solutions, such as more frequent or larger foreign currency transactions. In its app, you will see that Revolut offers three tiers of services for its users – Standard (free), Premium ($9.99/month) and Metal ($19.99/month).

As a standard user, you already enjoy access to many features on your Revolut card, including paying in over 150 foreign currencies, at a transparent interbank exchange rate and you can make foreign currency exchange worth up to $5,000 a month in more than 30 currencies. You also get to withdraw up to $350 of your money at international ATMs without any fees. Moreover, you gain access to 1 Revolut <18 account to extend fuss-free spending for your children aged 6 to 17 years.

What’s more, you can also send money locally and internationally, in over 30 different currencies. This international currency transfer feature is essentially a remittance service, and not readily available on many of the other multi-currency accounts in Singapore.

Note that as Revolut is not a Deposit Insurance (DI) Scheme member in Singapore, and deposits into your Revolut account are not covered under the Singapore Deposit Insurance Scheme (SDIC).

Read Also: YouTrip; Revolut; Transferwise; DBS MCA And UOB Mighty FX: Complete Guide To Multi-Currency Accounts And Wallets In Singapore

What Do I Get With The Different Revolut Accounts?

On its most basic plan, the free Standard account, you can already start spending in over 150 currencies, enjoy access to its interbank exchange rate, make up to $5,000 in foreign currency exchange every month, pay no fees on your first $350 ATM withdrawals and send money in Singapore and internationally in 27 currencies. This free plan is on par or better than other cards in the market.

You can consider its Premium and Metal accounts if you regularly require to make foreign currency exchange of more than $5,000 each month, want greater access to ATM withdrawals, receive extensive lounge access, and upgraded security features such as creating disposable virtual cards to make one-time transactions, which is especially useful if you’re unsure of the source you are purchasing from or want to allow someone else to make a purchase on your behalf. You will also benefit from more accounts and full features of Revolut’s >18 account.

On its Metal card, you receive even more value (of course!), with extensive insurance, dedicated concierge service and a 1% cashback on all your spending abroad.

Source: Revolut

Read Also: Best Money Changer In Singapore: Can UOB Mighty FX Give You The Best Exchange Rate?

What Foreign Currencies Can I Exchange On My Revolut Account?

While you can spend in over 150 foreign currencies at the interbank exchange rate, you can only store and exchange 28 currencies on your Revolut card. This should not be surprising for users of other multi-currency accounts, as it is comparable to many of them.

They include:

#1 Singapore Dollar (SGD)

#2 Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)

#3 US Dollar (USD)

#4 Australian Dollar (AUD)

#5 New Zealand Dollar (NZD)

#6 Euro (EUR)

#7 British Pound (GBP)

#8 Japanese Yen (JPY)

#9 Canadian Dollar (CAD)

#10 Thai Baht (THB)

#11 United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED)

#12 Bulgarian Lev (BGN)

#13 Swiss Francs (CHF)

#14 Czech Koruna (CZK)

#15 Danish Krone (DKK)

#16 Hungarian Forint (HUF)

#17 Israeli New Shekel (ILS)

#18 Mexican Peso (MXN)

#19 Norwegian Krone (NOK)

#20 Polish Zloty (PLN)

#21 Qatari Rial (QAR)

#22 Romanian Leu (RON)

#23 Saudi Riyal (SAR)

#24 Swedish Krona (SEK)

#25 Turkish Lira (TRY)

#26 South African Rand (ZAR)

#27 Chilean Peso (CLP)

#28 Colombian Peso (COP)

#29 Egyptian Pound (EGP)

#30 Indian Rupee (INR)

#31 South Korean Won (KRW)

#32 Kazakhstani Tenge (KZT)

#33 Philippine Peso (PHP)

How To Apply For The Revolut Card In Singapore?

Applying for the Revolut card is hassle-free and can be done entirely online (in just minutes):

Step 1: On the Revolut website, insert your phone number.

Step 2: Download the Revolut app that will be sent to your phone number via text.

Step 3: To verify your Revolut account, you need to submit a picture of your photo ID. This is a nice alternative to having to go down to the bank branch and wait in line to open a new account with the institution.

Step 4: Once your identity has been verified, you can order your free Revolut physical card and/or virtual card. You can also decide if you want to subscribe to either the Premium or Metal accounts.

Step 5: Your Revolut card will come in a unique blend of blue and purple. You can choose to personalise the colour of your plastic card by subscribing to the Premium account. You can also receive the metal card by subscribing to the Metal account.

As you finalise your order for your card, you will land on an account top-up page, which requires you to top up a minimum of $20 before being able to complete the application.

Once you do this, your card will arrive in approximately one week. When we tried this, it didn’t make a great deal of difference whether we opted for the Standard Delivery or Express Delivery, which would cost $19.99 more.

Step 6: When you receive your Revolut card, open the Revolut app to link your card.

Read Also: Step-By-Step Guide to Getting And Using A YouTrip Card For Your Next Holiday Or Shopping Online

Exchanging Money At The Interbank Exchange Rate And Without Any Transaction Charges

Central to using a multi-currency card and account is knowing how you get the best possible exchange rates and how much you’re being charged for making the currency exchange and/or foreign currency transaction.

Revolut uses the interbank exchange rate, which is a dynamic rate that changes all the time, without any markups. This is also why the real-time exchange rates on the app may be constantly updating.

Revolut also does not charge any fees for transactions made via its cards.

If you are a standard account holder, your limit is SGD $5,000 a month, and if you make transactions above this limit, you may be charged a fee.

Revolut’s <18 Account

Revolut also offers an <18 account for your children aged 6 to 17. You can set your kids up for financial success, enabling them hands-on experience with digital and mobile banking services from a young age. You can store their allowance, and set them up to start budgeting and create savings goals within a single app.

This account gives you spending alerts and allows you to set up spending limits – which provides another layer of security. On the Standard account, you get access to some >18 features for a single account, and you can benefit from full features and more accounts with Revolut’s paid accounts.

You can also let your children personalise their Revolut card (like the one below!).

Revolutionary Security Functions

Revolut offers powerful and innovative security features. There are a number of functions you can perform, such as freezing and unfreezing your card from your Revolut app, disabling your card’s magnetic stripe, as well as enjoying its contactless payments function, online payments function and/or ATM withdrawals function to protect yourself and your money.

You can choose to turn them on as well, and use them for specific purposes when you need to. This could be for security reasons, but also for convenience if you are going out for a night that will likely see you being intoxicated at some point or if you happen to misplace your card, and don’t want to call the company to cancel it while trying to look for it.

You can also use the location security feature that will determine if your card has been compromised based on your phone’s GPS location.

The virtual cards function enables you to create up to 5 daily card payments using disposable virtual cards. This allows you to let people use your card for one-off transactions as well as protect you from online sites you aren’t quite sure of.

There’s also a split-the-bill function, and while it’s not technically a security function, you can include other Revolut users in your contact list to split a bill with. This means they will instantaneously pay for it, and you don’t have to worry about collecting money from them afterward.

Read Also: Here’s Why I Stopped Volunteering My Credit Card To Settle The Bill First (Especially When Dining Out With Friends)

What Do Revolut’s Budgeting And Vault Functions Do?

There is also an analytics function that helps you keep track of your expenses and stay on path of any budgets you may have set for yourself. After setting a budget for certain types of expenses, you will be alerted when you’re nearing your limit each day as well as whenever you have overspent.

In the Vault, you start stashing away your spare change from your transactions to build up a savings pot, either for a specific reason or just to keep aside your “loose change” to see how much you may end up with. The one drawback is that you do not receive interest on your deposits, so you should not use Revolut like your bank, just yet anyway.

Read Also: Investing In Overseas Stocks? Here’s Why You Should Get A DBS Multi-Currency Account Today

Invest In Stocks, Cryptocurrencies And Commodities On Your Revolut Account

Via Revolut, you can also invest and trade stocks, commodities and even cryptocurrencies at competitive exchange rates. The benefit for users is that you get to store all your financial transactions within one financial super app.

When you invest in stocks, you can expect to pay a brokerage commission of $1.49 (and other relevant regulatory fees). Our stock investments will be stored with a third-party custodian, and fortunately, we don’t have to pay any custodian fees on our end.

For Standard account users buying and selling cryptocurrencies and commodities, the trading fee is 1.49% of your investment value (min. $1.49). In addition, there will be a 1% exchange fee if you exceed $5,000 worth of transactions each month. Premium account and Metal account users will have lower transaction fees and a higher amount to exceed before incurring the exchange fee charge.

Users in Singapore can also invest in gold, silver and other precious metals on the Revolut app. You can start investing from as little as 1.99% (min. $1.49), and keep tabs on market price movements.

Singapore Customers Can Look Forward To Even More Services

Having spoken to the folks at Revolut in the past, we understand that Singapore users will incrementally gain access to other features offered globally.

This article was first published on 23 December 2019 and has been updated with the latest information.